Unwound, Leaves Turn Inside You (Kill Rock Stars):
Eight records in, mighty uptighty trio Unwound are still winding
their way to the pinnacle of rockband, beating a
scraping-and-scratching wailing-and-assailing taught-rock path
through the screaming fields of sonic love, eyes set on a summit in
which the collective can communicate as a unit of pure musical
intuition. Over the two-CD set Leaves Turn Inside You, the
journey brings them to an autumnal clearing, finding few clean-shaven
moments of Fugazi-like stop/start-ism. Instead, Lund/Rumsey/Trosper
ditch the black-and-white to work in weary shades of withered grey;
fraying and diffusing their sound, coloring it with softer emotion;
the studio is on hand as an artistic tool, not a mere means of
reproduction. Maybe this is just me, but even in the record's most
strung-out moments of tension and distortion, Unwound sound nothing
more than soft and sweet. Pretty, even.  Anthony Carew